Loki Eliot

Sometimes when 50 to 60 new users arrive at your spot, it can be very stressful fo those community friends to help them all. Also there is sometimes the issue of New users being a nusance to those who are fully immesed in the game. For example last year in my steampunk game, i set up the landing spot right where you needed to start the game. Wether you were experienced SL user or a newb, you both started at the same spot. And for many it was off putting having to wade through new users who had not idea how to use SL let alone get immersed in the game. I realise i may come off sounding hatefulst towards New Users, im not i love newbs, those crazy newbs and i would love to make games specifically for them to entertain them and help improove their virtual world skills. But i also want to give the experienced users the sort of experience they have earned through spending alot of time in SL. What i plan to do this year is have two starting points, one for experiendced users and one for the New Users to hang out.

Ha yes, for example, my underground base test game you purchase a keypass to enter the cave. But some experienced users just know how to tp past the door anyways Also the open nature of SL brings up problems but in other cases it's a great part of a game such as the one i do in New Babbage, you are encouraged to freely explore the town. The very thought of letting people wonder across 12 sims of steampunk buildings seems the compltete oposite to simplicity

What i mean though is that not only do new users have to learn your game, they are still learning SL in general. In some cases i totally forget and i assume a new user knows to put a HUD on or to click to sit on something, or to rez an item on the floor.

Im really just re packaging things ive already written over the year from my own blog. I dont actually write that much, im more of a get inworld and build kinda person too

At the beginning of this year i created this rather odd image called the 'Engaging Experience Sandwich' as a way to describe how builds in SL should be considered. i used it to try and inspire my friends when they built on their plots on my island. I thought it might be useful on here also since we are discussing not just gaming but overall engaging interactive experiences in SL.

It's all well and good to spend a lot of time building interactive gaming experiences for everyone on the grid to enjoy, but it's pointless if no one knows about it. Before destination guide we had to rely on the rather dodgy search feature. Thats like searching for a game on google. You are more likely to search for a site that reviews games. Along came Destination guide and it's quickly become a major thing. Simply having your place on the destination guide will divert thousands of users (mostly new) to game. But be warned, place it in the wrong category and the drop off will happen quite quickly as your destination moves off the front page and is filed away in a category that does not appear on the login screen destination guide. As an old user i rarely use the DG because i have have a mountain of specific goals in world already. New users and casual users use the DG a lot. When submitting to the destination guide try and choose a category that does appear on all versions such as the login screen, the in world version and the SL website version. GAMES last time i looked only appears on the website version, but that may change soon 'HINT LL'. Also be warned that LL can totally use their own image. While submitting the underground base i sent an image depicting the underground tunnel you gain access to. For some reason they chose to use their own picture of a woman by a camp fire which i found perplexing. After emailing the editors they changed to the image i submitted. They've since changed it again to one of the entrance to the cave. So just be wanted they may change your destination pic at a whim. What i would like to see happen next At the moment destination guide is geared toward new users. I see it more like the featured front page of the iTunes app store used by all SL residents of different experience levels. I'd like to see the destination guide become more dynamic such as showing destinations based on how old your avatar is or what you have selected as your interests in your profile. This would require people submitting their experiences/destinations/events to rate or keyword their submissions. It would be nice for me to create a game that is for people with experience in using SL and target them in the submission to destination guide, Like wise would be good for New Users to be targeted by destinations specifically catering for their level of experience.

So i finally got round to visiting the Linden Realms game and wow. Straight away I'm hit with 'HOW DID THEY DO THAT!???"Over the last year i have battled with the limitations of second life when making basic gaming experiences that are familiar to those from proper games. Other than the basic cause and effect scripting and the 100% health level of a damage enabled sim, there isn't anything else.Here is a break down of what Linden Realms does and how the tools could improve games I've already built.Instant TeleportIn Linden Realms: The Goonys walked to the Linden Realms Portal which automatically teleported you to the game region. This is the first 'WTF?' moment . What i have thats similar: The closest i got to an auto teleport is for people to voluntarily click a board that teleports to the game location. Such as in the secret Underground base i have a hole you have to click to go down into.Effect on my Games: You would be able to just walk on the hole and automatically be teleported down the hole.Auto AttachmentsIn Linden Realms: Next we all automatically had a crystals HUD attached out of no where. I searched high and low for a scripting mechanism that might auto ad a HUD. This was because i wanted news on basic viewer to be able to wear my Bashables HUD so they could operate the bashing sticks.What i have thats similar: The Bashables system on Escapades allows you to activate a stick to bash things on the island with one click. Unfortunately once you have been given the HUD and stick you have to find it in your inventory to then wear it.Effect on my Games: The New tools could allow for the Bashable HUD's to auto attach making it easier for new people to quickly have fun on EscapadesDeadly SceneryIn Linden Realms: Then the Goonies went searching for Crystals upon which i Stumbled into a green swamp and promptly drowned and teleported to a respawn point rather than my designated home point.What i have thats similar: I tried once in a goony adventure to have a room fill with custard. Those goonies unfortunate enough to get out the room before the door closed ended up growing in custard. With the help of my friend we created a script that would request to teleport them to a location on the island when the custard prim rose high enough to touch them. The drawback of course was it only teleported one at a time and had to wait for each to accept the teleport.Effect on my Games: I can drown Goonies on mass!NPCsIn Linden Realms: We suddenly became aware of big rock monsters chasing us, and it was really fun as they moved and followed at just the right speed that you could only JUST get away :) If they touched you then you died and teleported to respawn point.What i have thats similar: Evil Zombie Worms. They use a basic base script package that i can drop into any monsters making them follow people. These follow in jerky movements as the detect script hurts every second or so to locate nearest resident. Also they do no damage because you need land to be set to damage enabled in order for objects to kill you and send you to your home point.Effect on my Games: I could make goblins, worms, and other nasty things a threat to my visitors, not just a nuisance.Im only speculating how the new tools might be able to enhance my own games. As yet LL have not told us exactly what these new gaming feature tools are so some of what i said might not work, it all depends how much is scripting and how much is region level permissions.Regarding Linden Realms itself, my friend Jesper pointed out that it was not very social game. The Hud gave us tasks to do and places to go, and after dying and re-spawning the group quickly got split up. For anybody thinking of making games in SL my friends and i personally think that group activity is a very important piece of what makes Second Life special and should be considered in the games created from here on.

Something that cropped up in the last game i made was target audiences. I had created a game and as soon as it was placed on destination guide my island was filled with mostly new users. This is not a bad thing if all you want is lots of people to arrive at your place, but i wanted them to enjoy the game and most of them were not. ….Why? Well New users act and do things very different from more experienced users. In Fact i was able to see an experienced SL user wade through the crowd of New Users, buy the chainsaw then off they went to play the game, awesome. This brings up an interesting question, who do you take into consideration when making a game experience? is it for new users, or experienced users and is it possible to cater for both? if so how?

I remember the days when i used to rent a shop space to sell my clothes designs. Every private region had a certain percent of its land devoted to a shopping mall in order to make their money back on tier costs. Im one of those people who feels market place totally took the need for shop space away and replaced it with… nothing but headaches for region owners. I own a full sim and quite a lot of it is not rented out to anyone because i can't find people who want to rent land during the economic hardshipping. But I'm not bothered because i've discovered people want to play games, there are in fact a lot of board people in SL who want something to do, especially newbs. It is possible for land owners to use the land not rented out to place an interactive game of some kind and generate revenue from it to help pay the tier. In the coming year we are going to possibly see some features that will allow us to simplefy the creation of game experiences and the viewer is already much simpler for new users to use. Could 2012 be the year we see a boost in interactive experience across private regions boosting in world transactions?

"Transmedia storytelling, also known as multi-platform storytelling, cross-platform storytelling, or transmedia narrative, is the technique of telling stories across multiple platforms and formats using current digital technologies." - wikipedia This topic is the one i am most excited about when it comes to Second Life experiences. When you think of gaming most think of traditional gaming from consoles or PC's and i know there have been some top prim based mini games, but Sl has a gaming genre that could very well be unique to SL and that Transmedia Gaming. I admit i don't know if it's happening on other virtual world platforms but it's something i haven't been able to produce on anything else. The best example for this would be my Transmedia Game "Babbage Chronicles" in New Babbage as steampunk town full of very awesome Steampunk role-players. Now i class roleplaying as gaming also so some might read this topic and flail their arms about saying it should be in the role-play section of the forums. But Roleplaying is a part of gaming, you take on a role when you pick up the game pad on xbox. Second Life is a hub of many different media and experiences in a way that i don't think is anywhere else. In The New babbage Chronicles you get to choose how you experience the story and how you interact with the story. The basic plot is a thin string with various ways to discover it or contribute to it. For example New Babbage has its own forum to which people post accounts of their experiences in the game. In this way i get feedback and can react to what they say and in doing so the story telling process becomes fluid. I also use twitter to tweet hints and tips and specific blog posts from people playing the game and in doing this other people stumble across the story and can take part. Within Second Life events are organised to tie in threads of plot and specially built encounters allow people to experience key moments in the game and uncover more of the story. But the way Second Life is used by users no encounter is the same as everyone developed their own view of the story depending on which angle they came into the game. I hope this is making sense to some of you XD This is an area of Second Life's roleplaying/gaming/experience that i find really interesting. Other gaming stuff like Combat weapons, puzzle solving and interactivity just become components in the way people step into the Transmedia Story. This is the 5th year i have run the New Babbage Chronicles and each year i learn better ways to tell the story and produce ways to interact.

I mentioned in another topic that an old game called Dizzy has inspired how i chose to make my games. that inspiration was to keep things 'SIMPLE'. Im not really a coder, i can't see code well, its all just random words to me. Im learning what order they are in works, but i still don't really understand WHY they work in that order. Because of this i try to keep the game mechanic as simple as possible. Things like 'Give objects' that when rezzed next to another object "makes stuff happen". When 'object hit' object then 'disappears' this is as simple as it gets i think in SL. If the scripting gets too complicated then there is more chance that something will go wrong that i can't fix. Not to mention the impact of bad lag Weather. Simplicity isn't just about scripting mechanics, it can also be applied to ease of use for the users. During my Zombie Massacre game it became apparent that the game was perhaps to difficult to get into and understand what to do from the start. While discussing with my friend we realised there were aspects of designing websites that could be applied to how users explore virtual worlds. The language barrier is also something that can be overcome by simplicity. Using universal icons to signify common tasks can reduce the need for multiple language translations. I believe now that how i displayed the rules was to much information to take in and people would get bored very quickly. My rule now is to keep game mechanics as simple as possible and let the story be the complex part.

I am a big fan of mesh but when i first dabbled in the beta grid i found the whole transition from Prim building to 3D modelling applications a bit daunting. Like everything though you just need the motivation to keep picking at the stone to carve out a statue. The biggest interest i have is in how Mesh could bring a whole new level of gaming experiences to SL. To start with we get to produce much more complex Creatures, Objects, Buildings and environments. On top of this we have so much more control over texturing. We now have the tools to create environments with their own unique style. We are no longer restricted to a look that is 'Primmy' Take some AAA games such as Borderlands, Alice Return to madness and even World of Warcraft. We have the ability to create experiences with their own look and feel giving people in SL a chance to step into a totally different grid than they are used to. Examples of two very different styles of 3D Im actually really looking forward to finally building full on mesh environments, why rant i yet? Most of my friends use Phoenix and whats the point in making fully meshed up games if your best mates can't play it. They fondly called my Zombie Worm Massacre game 'doughnut' massacre game since the Mesh Zombie Worms would not display properly for them. I have set a deadline of new year for my friends to start using a mesh compatible viewer. In future i would love to see the ability to animate mesh objects using the rigging feature, then we will get proper animated monsters and NPC's.

When i was between the ages of 10 - 12 i became addicted to a little egg called Dizzy. The game mechanics behind these little gaming adventures was so simple. Pick up items in to an inventory then drop them on other things to get past obstacles and in doing so uncover the story. This old system is a direct inspiration for how i have been developing my game experiences in SL. A step up from that and you come to Tomb raider which follows the same idea but with more bits to her….. well you get what I'm talking about. Remembering the old Dizzy games reminded me to think real simple when it comes to making an experience for others to enjoy. Second Life is already difficult without me adding more complicated rules to experience it :) What games from the past can influence or inspire gaming experiences in SL?

Thanks to Drago Artful's tips it has ended up being surprisingly easy. Next year i wonna make an intire Cell shaded environment. With mesh, style builds has become endless. !

Wow this started off quite a discussion, thanx very much for the tips

The way that I have been looking at making games in SL is no different from selling objects on market place. I did one time get a remark from someone saying all experiences in SL should be free but I agree with you. If I'm going to spend weeks of my time to build and create fun experiences for people, just like those who sell their work on market place I should be able to charge for my work. My issue is I have land and since people don't rent to have shops as much these days my goal is to generate revenue from the land by charging micropayments to enjoy gaming experiences. I've tried charging for a pass to enter a game Charging for weapons that allow people to play a game, I've also sold complete games through marketplace. My most successful model was low priced entrance micropayments. Another comparison is to iTunes apps where games are $0.50 As for keeping content fresh and up to date, if you get paid, then you have more reason to invest time into keeping things fresh.

Hero Quest - yeh it was a board game/roleplay game, i used to play it at school during lunch time, i was the wizard :-p Why is'nt it in SL? Because times have moved on and roleplay games are far more advanced in SL :-p

Actually, that is a good question, where are the turn based RPG games? should these not be quite easy to make??? I personally have never gotten into turn based games, i like the hack in real time stuff whcih is why i made my Bashable System because i wanted to bash things up. But i have always liked the look of Turn Based and i would imagine it could be quite effective in SL. HAs anyone actually done anything along these lines?

During one of my quest games in New Babbage i used Video and spoke in english. I had quite a few people requesting transcripts of the words because even though they could not understand english spoken word they were able to understand english written words. I found this very interesting so i now have english subtitles on my video sequences. It has to be recognised that there is a big amount of non english speaking residents. In my last game i tried to cater for 3 most spoken languages. I think it was English, Spanish and portaguise. I think i chose these three from a list of most spoken languages, but it could be wrong In the end the best global games are the ones that are so intuative that the only language needed to play them is intuition. Its far harder to accomplish than it sounds. :-p

Hello you wonderful scripting people, im in need of some help again. I want to have an object say something specifically 'only' to the person who touched the object. is this possible? :matte-motes-silly:

Thanks again for the awesome advice. With the simple instructions i was able to create some awesome cartoony version of my clothes. Would love to make full on 2D avatars with this, the possibilities and style could be amazing!

Ever since Jet Set Radio on the Sega Dreamcast i've been in love with Cell Shaded effects. There have been tutorials online on how to create such an effect with prims which gave us some real awesome 2D avatars. Now with the arrival of mesh, Cell Shaded objects can be taken to a whole new level. I have another thread in Mesh showing how easy it is to create cell shaded outlines. Is SL ready for 2D in a 3D world! Would love to see examples of other peoples Cell Shaded fashion.

I wnt to see the ability to crate rigged animated mesh objects, not just for clothes wearing, but for actual monsters and NPCs. I suggested allowing us to script a rigged mesh object to animate to an animation file placed insode the object. The reason for this is to allow more advanced animated monsters and NPCs that are'nt bots. Currently i have created for my games 1 prim goblins that rock from side to side thanks to prim puppeteer and they follow people about. But i would love to make proper NPC characters that move their limbs. It would push SL into the realms of proper gaming graphics leaving behind the stop-go motion stuff we currently have.

Thanks people for the extra ideas, and i've renamed this thread :-P

Last week was the 3rd Annual Steampunk Fleet Week showcasing the Navies of the steamlands. This year it was held at Winterfell and included ship building competitions, displays, Airships, Submarine races, Fleet Review and Grand Uniform Ball. This video documents highlights from the event. Enjoy! And for your pleasure, here is a small video with Bloopers from the event